Mr. John Martinsen To All Instructors

John is a homeschool dad and former university professor who taught courses in philosophy and classical languages.  He believes familiarity with these disciplines adds enduring value to the lives of all who study them, and counts himself lucky to be a part of the homeschooling community, where there is freedom to share and teach these subjects to thoughtful youngsters.  While he enjoys having the opportunity to motivate students and share his passion for these subjects, his basic approach to teaching is what you might call “old school”: explain the lesson, answer questions, provide resources and/or experiences that aid study and mastery, assign work that builds the skill being learned.  Repeat.  It isn’t fancy, but as long as two ingredients are present, it has worked reasonably well for a few thousand years.  Those ingredients are: 1) a curious student, and 2) a knowledgeable guide. Of those, the curious student is by far the most important, for he or she will always find a way to learn, even if the guide is utterly inept.  But the best guide in the world will accomplish nothing if the student doesn’t desire to know.  Luckily, as Aristotle wrote in the first sentence of his Metaphysics, “All human beings, by nature, strive to know.”  In the homeschooling community, this part of human nature usually shines forth free and uncorrupted.  It is a blessing to be entrusted to guide such students.

Current Classes
Classical Greek – (canceled)
Classical Latin – (canceled)